Don't Blink

Time passes so quickly that we take it for granted until we reach meaningful milestones that bring that eternal march into perspective. I've learned that once children enter the picture those milestones seem to become even more significant.

It was 18 years ago on Christmas Eve that my friend Earl called me to share the news that his son was born. Two months ago that little one who is now a young man left for Navy basic training. Where do the years go?

I hope everyone had a wonderful and warm 2010 Christmas and holiday season along with a safe and Happy New Year as we ushered in 2012.

This year brings with it excitement and hope as well as anticipation and probably for the superstitious among us a degree of trepidation. We look forward to Federal elections as well as the 2012 Presidential election.

For many this election is expected to be a critical one that will decide the long term direction in which our country continues or changes its bearings. Only time will tell.

Christmas is a magical time filled with cheer, good wishes and benevolent feelings toward others. We buy presents for each other and look forward to exchanging them with family and friends. We busily hustle about trying to prepare for holiday visits. We bake and cook and shop and eat. We schedule Christmas parties and buy presents to exchange, but do we ever stop to think about why?

This past Wednesday was the seventieth anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Early on Sunday morning at 7:48 a.m. to be exact the first Japanese plans initiated Operation Al which before ending claimed the lives of 2,402 Americans with another 1,247 wounded. We lost four battleships, two destroyers and another ship while another dozen ships were damaged in the attack. In addition, the two aerial waves conduct by Japanese fighter pilots also destroyed almost two hundred airplanes.

This column won't be for everyone, but if you wondered about ghosts and whether they truly exist, I want to share my first hand experience after 14 years of searching for your consideration.

Finally I have seen a true phantom as solid as the newspaper you are reading at least for a few seconds and I was not alone when it occurred. A friend was with me and saw the specter from a different angle and we have described it to each other on tape. If you don't believe, then you probably will want to stop now, otherwise join me because I want to share with you this event.

I hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving meal and the opportunity to spend time with loved ones. While we begin this holiday season, we should really pause and be sure to give thanks not only to all of those brave volunteers, men and women, in our military who are stationed all over the world to ensure its safety and tranquility, but we should also remember their loved ones.

Just when one thinks things will calm down this year, another scandal, political event or weather phenomenon seems to thrust itself into the forefront and eclipses everything prior to it. There seems to be no shortage of tragedy, but being that it is a few days before Thanksgiving, a time meant for giving thanks for the good things in our lives, I decided to share some stories to make you smile.

It's hard to believe how the span of one generation can show such a marked decline in the integrity and character of our country especially its leaders both in government, academia and life. Forty years ago, we would never see the disrespect and lack of ethics proudly touted about in today's society. What in the world is happening? If you ask me, I think the world has lost its bloody mind.

I would say that this year I thought I saw everything weather-wise one could imagine, but Mother Nature seems destined to continue to outdo herself. Each month appears to have brought its own unique flair and just when it seemed like there was a month she could possibly disappoint, the earth moved, literally.

"There's more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" is a quote from Hamlet in a conversation with Horatio in which he relates just seeing his father's ghost. I think it is a fitting way to begin this column just two days prior to Halloween, the night the veil between man and spirit is at its thinnest if you believe the Celtic people and ancient traditions.